Those who paid the device + hosting fee up front own the miners already. Those who paid the first month own the miners if they continue through months 2 and 3. If someone pays 1b then forfeits the contract after the first month we would own the miner.

From what I've read, and please post a link if I'm wrong, that seems to be an isolated incident occurring less than 1% of the time. I received an ANT from BitMain and Sushi on the same day. Both were dated 1/4/14 and had clean thermal paste. Another ANT I ordered from sushi did have some oozing thermal paste. So I powered it on and ran. Because honestly why would I care if the damn thing is dipped in thermal paste so long as there is a thin layer between the asics and the heat-sink (something which is evident by the amount of paste oozing out of the seems

I'll let you know if any that I receive appear to be in an off condition and the shop will clean them up before they are sold from here.